What the future holds
by thelastbumblebee
Summary: AU look at what life holds for Mr and Mrs Bates at three points in their life, in 1938, 1943 & 1948. With family life, work life and a changing world. A bit of fluff and domesticity - no big life changing plots
1. 1938

**_I just thought I would right a sweet AU fan fic about life for the Bates' family some years after their marriage, three chapters set in 1938, 1943 and 1948. _**

**_A bit sweet, a bit of fluff and not much of a major plot - just some nice stuff with the goings on pre, during and post World War 2._**

**_I hope you enjoy, and as always please review._**

* * *

**1938**

The young woman sat down at the table, the sun was shining through the April cold and her teeth chattered, part through cold and part through nerves. Stood opposite her was a woman in her mid forties, her fair hair pulled back into a bun that was a little old fashioned but at the same time suited her perfectly. Her black dress was simply cut, falling to her knees and flattered her figure, the woman smiled at Ceri.

"So – are you ready?"

"I think so. I came from Stonor Park."

"Oxfordshire?" said an older man sat to her left, with a box of collars open in-front of him, his hair was a dark grey and slicked back off his face, he had a warm face and a slight Irish burr to his voice.

"That's right – the 6th baron Camoy … but I wanted a new start."

"Lovely – well I'm Mrs Bates, the countess's ladies maid, I'll take you upstairs now – you can unpack and be ready for the afternoon."

"Thank you." She picked up her case and followed the woman out through the door and up the first of a very long flight of stairs. The house was vast – so much bigger than Stonor, so much bigger then she was used to – at Stornor she and the other three housemaids had worked hard to keep the house clean, but here … how _could_ it be kept clean she wondered.

"You look terrified!"

"Do I? Sorry – I was just thinking how big Downton is. It seems – just … vast!" Mrs Bates laughed, not at Ceri, she was relieved to see, but with her.

"Oh yes it is, but it's not impossible, and there are a great deal of spare bedrooms that don't need to be cleaned everyday. When I first started here as a housemaid we didn't even have electricity – you girls today – you've got it made!"

"You were a housemaid?"

"Yes – until her ladyship married the Earl, Mr Crawley, in – oh – 1921. Then I became her ladies maid, and my husband became his lordships valet."

"You're husband?"

"Yes – Mr Bates, you met him in the servants hall."

"Oh I see – you're husband, goodness." At Stornor there had never been allowed married staff – clearly Downton was a very different kind of house! She turned to Mrs Bates, readjusting the suitcase in her hand – how many stairs were there in this house!

"Yes – we live on the estate in a grace and favour cottage. For seventeen years now, with our children."

"Your children? How sweet – how many have you got?"

"Three – 2 boys, Patrick and Ciaran, and our daughter Aoife. Patrick's 17, he's working here now, in the garage – he's always been mad on cars, and so Mr Waite the chauffer here is teaching him about engines. Aoife's 15, she's working as a typist for a publisher in Ripon, and Ciaran's just 13, so we don't know what'll happen to him when he leaves school next year."

"How exciting – does he have any interests?"

"Oh yes, running, he says he wants to run in the Olympics! He's his head in the clouds that one."

"I think it's an excellet ambition – is he fast?"

"Oh yes – very fast, he's always been a whippy lad, when he was a child you had to keep both eyes on him or he'd be out of your sights before you could say Jack Spratt. But he's just a boy from Yorkshire, as much as I'd like him to follow his dreams, my husband and I are realists – he'll not get to Japan to compete – I'm afraid. Ahh – here we are – your room. I'm afraid Eileen left it a little messy, I know Mary did give it a clean but it may still be a little musty."

"I'm sure it'll be fine – thank you Mrs Bates."

"Very welcome – you're uniform should be – yes – it's there on your bed. I'll see you later Ceri."

* * *

Anna ladled out the stew into six bowls, Patrick was already eyeing up the rest of the remaining stew in the pan.

"It's fine – there'll be some left for seconds!" Her eldest son had clearly inherited her husbands genes in terms of height, he already towered over her at 6 foot – she felt like she spent her entire life letting down his trousers to try and get them to reach his boots and not hang around his ankles.

"Aoife! Ciaran! Your tea's ready!" She passed a bowl to her daughter as she entered the kitchen and sat down beside her brother. "Ciaran? Where's you're brother you two?"

"Talking to Dad out front when I got home." Patrick said, his spoon hovering over the edge of his bowl. Anna gave him a careful look from under a raised eyebrow and he timidly replaced his spoon beside his plate.

"If your dad and Ciaran aren't out front – then you can start without them, but you're going to wait until I've checked – got it Paddy!"

"Yes Mam." Anna made her way to the front door, opening up onto their small patch of garden, currently asleep for the winter, but under her and John's tender care would be full of colourful blooms come summer. She found John sat on the step, his head resting on a hand as he looked out over the estate.

"John? Where's Ciaran?" She said,

"We had an argument …"

"About what?" she sat down beside her husband on the cold stone step.

"What do you think? His running of course, I told him he needed to start thinking about a real occupation."

"He didn't take it very well then?" Anna slipped her hand into his and stroked his knee.

"Are we doing the right thing? Telling him to abandon his dreams? I mean I followed mine – I married you."

"Your dreams were a little more modest than Ciaran's. Marrying the girl you love doesn't really compare with going to Japan to compete in the Olympics, does it? You shouldn't worry so much, we've got three fantastic children John. They're beautiful, and clever, and we can be proud of them, Paddy's doing a job he adores, Aoife's worked hard to do a good job that pays enough for her to give me something for the house and for her have enough put away for when she marries, and Ciaran … Ciaran'll be fine, once he leaves school he'll find a job, he'll marry a young lass and he'll be a great father. Maybe in 25 years time when he's having this conversation with his son the world'll be a different place – maybe in … lord – 1963, a working class boy can follow his dreams and do what ever he wants."

"You're right – of course. When are you not right!"

"Rarely – now come in out of the cold, you'll catch a death – and Paddy'll eat his sister if he has to wait much longer for his tea." She smiled at her husband, reaching up to smooth a strand of hair off his forehead,

"That boy'll eat us out of house and home! Oh I never asked," he said rising to his feet and reaching for his cane. "How's that new maid settling in?"

"Ceri Morgan? OK I think – quite why she came to Yorkshire I'm not sure, Wales to Oxfordshire is one thing – but Wales to Yorkshire?"

"Perhaps we've another Ethyl on our hands!" Letting themselves back into the kitchen, they saw Patrick guiltily replacing his spoon beside his noticeably less full bowl of stew. John picked up a bowl off the table and sat down at the head opposite Anna.

"Go-on Paddy, you can start now … not that you haven't already! What time do we have to be back Anna?"

"Eight, No-one's round for dinner tonight so it'll be an early night."

"Aye-aye!" said their sun with a smirk.

"Patrick! Not at the table … right, so we we'll be back at about eleven, Aoife – can you make sure you're brother gets his tea."

"I will – can I go out to the dance on Saturday Mam? Michael Taylor wants to take me …" Aoife said, carefully watching her parents to gauge their response.

"Michael Taylor – from the village? The engine stoker?"

"Yes, that Michael Taylor."

"I don't see why not … as long as you're not back too late mind!"

"I wont Dad! I promise." Anna smiled at John, he had always been protective over his little girl, and eyed all young men with suspicion,

"And your Dad'll be checking your dress for sooty handprints!" chuckled Patrick.

"Patrick! I wont tell you again!" Scolded Anna, although a little half heartedly – she always quite enjoyed her eldest sons bawdy humour despite herself.

* * *

"Ahh, thank you Anna. I think I'm getting to old for these charity dances, I'm exhausted. But the girls seemed to enjoy themselves. Not that I should really call them _girls_ anymore." Said Lady Mary with a smile as she took the cup of coca off Anna. "Seventeen and forteen- I never thought I would see the day. I saw your Aoife at the dance tonight, she seemed having fun, with that Taylor boy of the trains."

"Yes your Ladyship, I think she's a bit sweet on him to be honest. I'll just turn down your bed for you."

"Thank you – and your Patrick seemed full of life, dancing with all the girls! Even my Emma at one point."

"Oh – I am sorry your ladyship, I'll tell him …"

"Oh don't be silly, it's only children having fun – she'll be off to London this summer once she turns eighteen in a few weeks anyway – so it's no harm done. If I was really bothered then I wouldn't let Harold and Emma go to the Spring dance."

* * *

Anna pulled the quilt up and readjusted her pillows to prop herself up on the bed as John eased himself in beside her, as the years progressed he leg had got stiffer, although by staying in work with the new Earl of Grantham he had kept active and stopped it rusting up entirely. He opened up his book to read, but he could tell by the look on Anna's face that she had something to talk about, and from almost twenty years of marriage he knew that the look on her face meant that she was going to start a deep conversation just when he was at his most tired.

"I was speaking to Lady Mary tonight …"

"Oh?"

"She said that Paddy was dancing with her Emma at the spring dance earlier on."

"Oh?"

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Well – do you think we should talk to him?"

"About what?"

"About what's appropriate …"

"Appropriate? Come on Anna, don't worry so much. He's just a lad."

"He's not a lad John, he's seventeen – he knows what's what, and I just don't want him to do something daft."

"Daft? What you mean like Tom Branson?"

"Exactly like Tom Branson!"

"He'll be fine – he's not daft. Anyway – I know he's sweet of Molly in the village shop."

"You think?"

"I do – now stop your worrying woman and go to asleep! We've got to be out by half five."

"Goodnight love."

"Goodnight."


	2. 1943

_**Here is chapter 2, first off I would like to apologize for the appalling grammar and spelling in chapter 1, I only spotted it all when I went for a look this morning. All I can say is that I was very tired when I wrote it, and didn't check thoroughly enough - so I am sorry for that, hopefully this one'll be a little better!  
**_

**_I hope you enjoy and please review - it's great to hear!_  
**

* * *

**1943**

Anna replaced the letter on the table, she smiled quietly to herself, willing herself not to cry. Crying would be silly – it was a happy letter, a nice letter from Ciaran, he had remembered her birthday – despite everything he had got a letter to her from Egypt, it hurt her to have her youngest son stationed so far away – but serving in Egypt had done something for him, it had helped him come to terms with not being allowed to run, he had seen the world and although he promised that he would come home, in her heart of hearts she knew he would stay out there for the duration. He had even met a girl, the daughter of some army captain, Ciaran had sent his parents a photograph of her, laughing as she tried to hold onto her hat in a harsh wind that whipped up the sand around her. Anna knew it was serious, she just hoped that her son would survive long enough for her to meet his, she hoped, future wife. At times like these her mind was filled with William Mason, that young footman from what seemed like a lifetime ago. Hearing a clatter-bang above her she raised her eyes to the heavens, the military had moved into Downton again, just as they had 24 years previously, although this time the house was being used as a full blown hospital, and the soldiers and the nurses were making themselves known, loudly.

"Penny for them." Said a soft Welsh voice behind her, Anna turned to see Ceri, she had now been at Downton for five years and had settled in admirably, John's fears of her being another Ethyl, she was an excellently diligent hard worker who, it transpired, had a unused talent in music hall singing.

"Oh it's just … just a letter from the boy. Ciaran. I miss him terribly and I worry about him. Just thinking about William …"

"William?"

"Oh umm a lad who used to be footman here, he was married to Mrs Mason."

"Mrs Mason our cook?"

"Mmm – she and he were married and then he died in the first war. It was terribly sad, and … and I worry about the same thing happening to our Ciaran."

"You mustn't worry Mrs Bates, you'll make yourself ill. And you've Patrick and Aoife to think about. When's Aoife's baby due?"

"A few more weeks now, it's a pity that her Michael's away lord knows where. But he'll be back by Christmas, which is a small blessing I'm sure. And Aoife's safe in Ripon."

"Yes – you see, small blessings!"

* * *

John stretched out on the sofa in the living room, the wireless whispered softly on the sideboard as it played the last strands of the Palm Court orchestra and got ready for the world service. He could hear the sound of Anna making a pot of tea in the kitchen and he smiled contentedly to himself, now that he was 63 he had long since come to terms with their marriage, whereas in the early days every aspect of their life together had worried and concerned them – now he was happy at last, and able to accept their life.

"Tea love?"

"Thank you, what did Ciaran have to say?"

"Oh not much, there's not much he's allowed to say I suppose – but he seems happy, and his Molly seems to be doing him the power of good."

"That's nice, it's nice that he remembered your 50th birthday … where's Aoife tonight?"

"I think she went out for some air, she's been so ill with the pregnancy. Was I that bad? I can't remember." She said as she settled down beside her husband, tucked under her arm as they had been sitting together in their cottage for over 20 years now.

"Neither can I, the last one was so long ago…"

"I know – 19 years, you know I can barely believe it, 19 years ago our little Ciaran was just a babe, and now he's away in North Africa, going to get married … it's odd how time goes."

"Odd – but good Anna, if time didn't move on, if they didn't grow then life wouldn't progress – we've a grandchild on the way … fancy that … a grand child – and if we can just get out of this war in one piece then …"

"If … that's the thing though isn't it, I mean I'm lucky of course – Ciaran in Egypt and it's not too bad over there right now, Aoife's healthy and our Paddy's fixing engines for the army up at Downton. But even so … I worry." John slipped an arm around his wife's waist and gave her a squeeze, he loved the feel of her – even after all these years together, he never forgot the first time he had held her in his arms.

"Well," He said, carefully kissing her on the forehead. "you mustn't. It isn't good for you …" he paused as there was a click as the door opened and closed – they could hear hushed voices in the kitchen and two sets of footsteps.

"Mam? Dad?" Called out Patrick's voice from the kitchen, now that he had reached the age of 22 he had filled out a little from his lanky teenage frame into a broad shouldered young man.

"In here love … who've you got with you Paddy?" called out Anna, with Ciaran away, every time she heard the front door go her heart skipped.

"Ummm - is Dad in there too Mam?"

" … Yes … why? Patrick Bates – what's going on?" There was a brief pause before Patrick stepped through into the doorway looking uneasy holding his hand stood a young woman, with dark hair curled off her face and her fathers green-blue eyes.

"Lady Emma? What are you doing here?" Said Anna, quickly getting to her feet and pulling her skirt straight, acutely aware that she hadn't swept the floor that day.

"Mam I uhhh …" Patrick faltered, looking over at Emma Crawley before turning back to his parents, "Emma and I are going to get married … Mam – Dad. We've booked ourselves into Ripon registry office tomorrow morning first thing, the first of the day at nine o'clock. We haven't told his lordship …"

"He'll never allow it Mrs Bates!" began Emma, she gripped Patrick's hand a little tighter. "My father's liberal enough but he still has his principles – he'd never allow me to marry Patrick. Please – we just need somewhere to stay tonight so that tomorrow we can go over to Ripon …"

"Please Mam … Dad, you know how I've always felt about Emma. This is our chance for happiness, you've got to understand – with the war on – we have to grab every day as though it's our last! Please …"

"Anna – are you getting a sense of déjà vu here?" Said John, getting slowly to his feet with a raised eyebrow at Anna, he continued. "Patrick – be sensible – we can't … you CAN'T do this, it's madness! You work with the army at the house, you can't marry the daughter in secret and then just turn up for work the next day. And if you do a runner, the army'll be on your back, her Ladyship'll be on Emma's and his Lordship'll be on ours for letting our son run off with their daughter. This is not going to end well."

"But Dad you don't understand."

"I do Paddy, trust me, your Mam and I really do understand. But …"

"Look Dad, we're twenty two, we can marry legally – we're just asking for your help." Turning to Anna again John sighed, he had been just as headstrong at Patrick's age, he would probably have done the same some 45 years before. But that didn't make his position any easier, he had a job as Patrick's father to stop him doing something stupid. Although – John wondered – was this really something that was that stupid? He looked to Anna for some guidance in this point, but he could see she was as lost as him.

* * *

"What do we do John?" Asked Anna, as she sat on the edge of their bed to unlace her shoes,

"Oh lord I don't know Anna …" replied John, carefully unbuttoning his waistcoat. "We can't stop them marrying! I mean we've always said that … well that there might be something there, but we always dismissed it."

"I know I know! But … we can't keep this hidden from her ladyship until … well until they see fit to inform the world. Which will be another mess in itself – we could loose our jobs John! Does that sound selfish?"

"Not at all Anna, it sounds very sensible … we're comfortably off – but we couldn't survive unemployed. And now … I mean at my age, with my leg we'll never get employment – and with Aoife's baby on the way, if anything happened to her Michael … we have to think about this logically, if a little selfishly – we are parents with children to support. We can't risk our jobs … and don't forget Paddy'd lose his too, with no reference to get another." He gently lowered himself down into the bed, and stretched out, pulling his wife in for a hug beside him. "But at the same time – if they don't marry, what are we going to do to him, drive him away and make him miserable … and besides, marrying a girl I oughtn't to have worked out pretty well for me!"

"I think we should let them."

"You've changed your tune!"

"Yes – but I was just thinking about Tom Branson and Sybil … they did everything wrong – I mean they were vilified when they married, but they've come though it alright, and happy, I mean so much happier than they might have been other whys. And who are we to stop happiness?"

"And our jobs, his job?"

"… That I don't know John – but I know we can't deny them happiness … or a shot at happiness at least."

"Do you suppose they will be happy Anna? You don't worry that it's just … the taboo that's floating Emma's boat?"

"Do you think it is?"

"I don't know – I suppose it depends how long this has all been going on …"

"Remind me again Anna – why we ever thought that raising children would be easy? Do you remember when Aoife was teething and Ciaran had colic, and we were both exhausted – and you said to me: 'Just think John – once they reach 16 they'll be their own people, we wont have to baby them – we can just watch them grow and evolve!' do you remember that Anna?"

"I do, God I was an idiot!" John laughed, a rich throaty laugh as he pulled Anna in a little tighter and she settled her arms around him. He laughed because he had believed it too, that once they were 16 and working, and marrying and having their own babies, that his and Anna's roles as parents would simple be to watch their children grow and admire their handiwork – how wrong they had been.

* * *

_**I would like to promise you all that the symmetry between Paddy and Emma, and Lady Sybil and Branson are entirely co-incidental! I only realized half way though and then sort of had to mention it - other whys it would just be a big literary elephant in the room!** _


	3. 1948

_**The third and final part for you all, I hope you enjoy and have enjoyed my little wander through the life that might be!**_

_**As always - please review I write for your enjoyment mes amis!** _

* * *

**1948**

Anna looked out across the garden, the heat of the august summer day had finally started to subside leaving them with a warm late afternoon and a cool breeze that drifted across the village. Their new home, she still thought of it as such – despite them moving there some 5 years before, was off the estate, next door to the village church and across from the cottage hospital, something that John found a constant source of amusement with a kind of gallows humour. Stepping out from under the gables, Anna walked towards her husband carrying out her pot of tea in one hand and a jug of lemonade that was made sans sugar and sans lemons – and as a result tasted disgustingly like an orange had been left to rot in a glass of stale water, but needs must in times of rationing.

"Mam, you shouldn't be carrying that!" Said an indignant Patrick, jumping to his feet and manhandling the jug and pot from her grasp.

"Paddy! I'm not an invalid – but if you want to be helpful you can fetch the milk … and there's some cake on the side." She called out over her shoulder, as she sat down opposite her husband at the table, pulled out onto the lawn by the boys. She surveyed the group together, the Bates family. Paddy was the only one to have been formally demobbed, in his long grey flannel trousers and shirt he had flopped down beside Emma, who, Anna was pleased to see, had acclimatised to becoming a Bates so easily. Unlike her parents who, although they had allowed Anna and John to keep their jobs, had insisted that they give up their cottage – refusing that their daughter night share a home in the grounds with three of the servants. She watched her eldest son for a moment, his arm around his young wife, their baby daughter on his lap – the swell of his wife's second pregnancy barely visible, she was pleased, pleased for them that things for them had finally come right, after their moonlight flit to elope, and 2 years constantly aware of the presence of her disapproving parents looming over them they could finally relax together, and it suited him. Sitting beside his brother was Ciaran, like his brother his hair was thick and dark, but unlike his brother he was shorter and narrow shouldered, still a serving member – some three years after the war had ended in North Africa, her son was dressed in his RAF blues, the tunic open in the heat and his tie pulled a little loose – he had come home just three weeks before , stationed in South Wales now - he had brought his wife, Molly, home to meet his parents. 5 years after they had married and four years since the birth of their first child, three since the birth of their second, now that Molly was heavily pregnant with the third they had decided to accept the MoD's offer of a training post in Newport.

"I think …" Began John, "That it is time for a toast!" he said coming to his feet. "I think that today, we should be very grateful for all we have, I know that your Mother and I are so happy that we have all three of our children back home safe and sound, and our 4 grandchildren, who I think we all hope will be spared the world we have endured for the past 7 years, and can, we hope, enjoy a happy – fruitful world … now as lucky as we have been so see our Paddy and Ciaran home safe and sound with us … I realize that we have not all been so fortunate … I have lost a son in law in our Aoife's Michael, who was lost at sea – but we have his son, our beautiful grandson who, I know, will do his father's memory proud. Also Harold Crawley – our Emma's brother, a more charming man, a more hardworking man yet to be found – taken from us too young. I think that today – we out to raise a glass to – absent friends!"

"To absent friends" Came the chorus of the Bates family, joined together in all their forms.

* * *

Anna sat beside John on the bench, a cup of tea in her hands and she smiled at him.

"That was a beautiful speech John … and so true."

"Thank you – I'm glad Ciaran's home, it feels good to have the whole family together again … well almost the whole family."

"Aoife? Yes … lets not pretend that she wont remarry though."

"You think?"

"She's a young woman John, not that she didn't love Michael … but I think she's hardy – and a romantic, she'll find love again."

"I'm sure you're right … you have been happy with me haven't you Anna?"

"What makes you say that?"

"Just reflecting – on life, you know how it is …"

"I know how you are John Bates if that's what you mean!"

"I'm serious Anna, not that I wish you hadn't waited for me, but I just wondered if I had never come home from when I left with Vera, or if my case … if I had died … would you have remarried?"

"I don't know – I know that if I had remarried, it would have been for companionship, not for love, I could never love another man as I have loved you."

"Good – I'm glad, because you know I often worried that you would have lived as some kind of spinster without me, and that … that is something I could never forgive myself."

"Well then … you needn't worry! You go on up to bed – I'll see Paddy and Emma off home."

"Alright then, see you in a while."

Anna gave him a kiss, gently he eased himself to his feet and went back into the house, she smiled quietly to herself and then:

"How long have you been eavesdropping Patrick Bates?"

"Sorry Mam … can I join you?"

"Do you really have to ask? Come and sit down here – I'd offer you and Emma a bed for the night but I know you'd rather get back to Manchester."

"Mam? …. Who's Vera?"

"Vera?"

"Dad mentioned a Vera – just then …"

"Vera … Vera was – a woman, who you're father was married to …"

"Married!"

"Yes – a long time ago, they married in the last century, before your father left to fight in the Boers."

"Dad was in the Boers?"

"He was … he was a different man then, a … a very different man. They married – and weren't very happy."

"What happened to her?"

"She died – in 1919, she commit suicide – and … and that was that, she was a very unhappy soul you see Patrick, a terribly unhappy woman. But before she died, she tried to black mail your father about … oh about something, which was big news at the time … anyway – your father left me in 1916 to go back to her, thinking it would make her go away – but it didn't. So he came back to me. And that's that … all in the past now though." Patrick looked at his mother, she was looking off into the middle distance, not quite meeting his eyes, he knew she was lying – but he also knew that his mother was an honest woman who wouldn't lie without good reason. To protect him, to shield him, to make his own life a little better, and he respected that – for her knew he would do the same for his own children.

None of the Bates children knew about their parents past, they knew that they had met at Downton on the day the Titanic sunk, and they knew that they had married in 1920. But neither Anna nor John saw any reason to tell their children about John's time in Prison, about his wrongful conviction for Vera's murder, about Vera at all indeed. That was all part of a history – which their children played no part in.

As Anna lay in bed that night, beside her husband she knew that the world around them was changing, Princess Elizabeth was pregnant, and would have her baby by the end of the year, a friend of hers in service in London spoke of the commonplace-ness of a television set in her employers home and across the world wars were being fought – countries divided up and men brought to trial for their actions in the war. She knew that the world was changing, and that her time left on this earth was limited. Threescore and ten … she thought as she closed her eyes and smelt the smell of her husband beside him and listened to his regular deep breaths … threescore and ten … but not tonight, not tonight.

* * *

_**I hope you don't find the end too down beat - it isn't meant to be - I was going for warm and uplifting!** _


End file.
